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Epipodophyllotoxins is a naturally occuring antitumors agent extracted from Mayapple plant.

Epipodophyllotoxin is a highly effective anticancer drug. Its mechanism of action may be to inhibit topoisomerase II, which in turn prevents the replication of DNA in tumour cells.

It is a lignan compound; podophyllotoxin is isolated from the roots of Podophyllumpeltatum and P. emodi. Teniposide and etoposide are the semisynthetic derivativesof epipodophyllotoxin, and they are used for lymphomas and bronchial and testicularcancers (Shoeb 2006). These compounds break DNA molecules during the G2/Mphase in cell cycle by binding to tubulin and irreversibly inhibiting DNAtopoisomerase II (Balunas and Kinghorn 2005). Podophyllotoxin prevents thebreast cancer cell growth by modifying checkpoint kinase 2 (Chk2) signalingpathway and also induces apoptosis in non-small cell lung cancer by cell cyclearrest, autophagy, and ER stress (Singh et al. 2016b).